VERA WHOLE HEALTH AND CASTLIGHT HEALTH ANNOUNCE HEALTH TECH LEADER DONALD TRIGG AS CEO, REBRAND COMPANY APREE HEALTH

Former Cerner president to lead apree health in its mission to build an integrated digital navigation and advanced primary care category leader

SEATTLE and SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vera Whole Health, Inc. and Castlight Health, Inc. announced today the appointment of Donald Trigg as chief executive officer and unveiled a new company brand: apree health. Effective this week, Trigg serves as chief executive officer and joins the company's board of directors.

"apree health is uniquely prepared to transform the healthcare industry with an end-to-end solution that brings together navigation, advanced primary care, and a financial model with aligned incentives that transforms lives through better health," said Ronald Williams, chairman of the board of the combined Vera Whole Health and Castlight Health company. "Don is a proven industry leader who has spent almost two decades at the intersection of healthcare and IT to help improve health outcomes. He is the right chief executive to drive our efforts to unlock and scale value-based care for the benefit of providers, patients, plan sponsors, and health plans."

Ravi Sachdev, partner at lead investor Clayton, Dubilier & Rice added, "When we announced the Vera Whole Health and Castlight Health combination, we set out on a mission to accelerate payment and care delivery transformation through the combination of technology and a unique clinical delivery model. We've now reached a major milestone towards that goal with Don's appointment as CEO."

Trigg most recently served as president of Cerner Corporation. During his tenure, the company grew from more than $800 million to almost $6 billion in revenue. As President, Trigg had full P&L responsibilities across all Cerner business groups spanning from the clinical EMR and revenue cycle to a set of strategic growth businesses beyond the EMR including provider health network strategies around value-based care.   

"There is a crisis of affordability in U.S. healthcare that will define the decade," said Trigg. "The market is tired of point solutions that fail to deliver a person-centric system of care with world-class experience, improved outcomes, and lower costs. apree health has an opportunity to deliver an end-to-end strategy for digital navigation, advanced primary care, and member risk management. It will improve the lives of millions of Americans and be transformative for U.S. healthcare."

Donald Trigg most recently served as president of Cerner Corporation. As president of Cerner, Don held general management, P&L, and operational responsibilities for the full breadth of Cerner's business groups. These groups were comprised of Cerner's foundational electronic medical record (EMR) and revenue cycle. They also included almost $1 billion in revenue of strategic growth businesses ranging from Real-Time Health Systems (RTHS) within the four walls of the hospital to the Health Network, Behavioral Health, and LTPAC and Workforce Health businesses beyond the four walls of the hospital to the Real-World Data and Clinical Trials business. 

During more than a decade at Cerner, Trigg held diverse leadership roles throughout the business. His responsibilities ranged from executive vice president of Cerner's Strategic Growth businesses to managing director of the United Kingdom and Ireland operations in London, England to general manager of the Midwest region within the U.S. market to the first-ever vice president of Cerner's government practice.

Outside of Cerner, Trigg has extensive experience scaling early-stage growth businesses. From 2010-2012, he led the execution of natural language processing supplier CodeRyte's rapid growth plan, culminating in its strategic acquisition by 3M in 2012.  He served on the board of referral management leader, Boston-based Kyruus, as well as on the board of the Medicare Advantage solution provider for health systems, St. Louis-based Lumeris.

Trigg also spent more than a decade in Washington, D.C. He worked four years for George W. Bush on his 2000 presidential campaign in Austin, Texas, and his presidential first term in office in Washington, D.C. He also worked in a variety of senior policy roles in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

Trigg earned a bachelor's degree from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. He is the co-author of The New Health Economy: Ground Rules for Leaders (Georgetown University Press).

apree health is on a mission to build the first end-to-end healthcare solution that redefines the care experience and transforms the way patients access and engage with care, the way providers deliver care, and the way employers and other purchasers pay for care. apree health does this by combining best-in-class navigation and data-driven insights, the most advanced primary care model, and value-based risk models to unlock health outcomes and make life better for those it serves.

Vera Whole Health is leading the critical shift to value-based care across the United States. Vera is the only care model with the capability to deliver whole system health to a diverse patient population from a single care center. The Vera model is uniquely designed to help people achieve optimum social, psychological, and physical well-being—an outcome that's neither probable nor affordable within the current sick-care system.

Castlight is on a mission to make it as easy as humanly possible for people to navigate the healthcare system and live happier, healthier, more productive lives. As a leader in healthcare navigation, Castlight provides a world-class digital platform with a team of clinical and benefits experts to help members easily connect and engage with the right programs and care, at the right time. Castlight partners with Fortune 500 companies and health plans to transform employee and member benefits into one comprehensive health and wellbeing experience to deliver better health outcomes and maximize returns on healthcare investments.

Media Contact:  
Natalie Pacini  
Highwire PR  
[email protected]

SOURCE Castlight Health, Inc.